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Gender Issues In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus And Nawal El Saadavis Woman At Point Zero
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CHAPTER ONE
Background of the study
Woman plays a vital role in feeding future generations, but the irony is that the woman is mainly degraded and dominated on the basis of sex. Feminism, which is one of the hottest topics in the world, has still not been achieved. Feminism in a secular language gives women equal rights and status. Unfortunately, women around the world are deprived of their basic rights. The woman is still considered a “secondary sexâ€. The fight for women’s rights is not new and women have been fighting for this for a very long time and it continues today. The current wave of feminism is considered to have been launched by two key philosophers, namely. Mary Wollstone Craft and John Stuart Mill in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But the term feminism was first used by a socialist Charles Fourier in the 19th century. Mary Wollstone is often considered the mother of feminism. In her book entitled “A defense of women’s rightsâ€, she argues that the education of women is one of the fundamental requirements of the world. She emphasized that women are not just wives, but help to build the nation because they are the companions of their husbands. According to Mary Wollstone Craft, women should enjoy equal rights and status because they are not just ornaments or merchandise that must be traded in marriage, but rather a very important part of society. And its main purpose was to sensitize women to education so that they are well aware of their rights.
Elaine Showalter, an American feminist traced the history of feminism and divided it into three phases. She called the first phase “the silent phase†or the female phase (1840-1880), where women were only dumb and fighting only for fundamental rights. The second phase (1880-1920) is called the “protest phase†of the feminist phase, which was more aggressive and the women of this phase fought for the suffragettes. They called for the right to vote so that their voice was heard as well. The last phase (1920 to the present day) is the self-discovery phase. This phase required autonomy.
But whatever feminism in the world, everything was about white ladies and third world women were ignored. Third world women realized that their role was absent from feminism and also mobilized to defend their rights. Alice Walker, a well-known writer, focused on the word “feminism†or “sorority†instead of feminism. According to her, this word denotes the feminism of the world and believes that if we consider all the women of the world as sisters, then only feminism can be realized. If we retrace the history of black feminism, Bell Hooks’ book Is not I a Woman? : Black women and feminism is definitely a reference. In this book, Hook’s talks about black feminism and the struggle of black women. Hooks advocates for ending sexism and racism against women. This book took him 7 years to complete it. She explains in the book that women during slavery suffered most of the discrimination and suffering. Not only blacks, but women around the world have come forward to make their voices heard in favor of rights.
Today, women all over the world, be they European, African or Asian, all come forward to defend their rights and status under the generic term feminism. Philosophers, thinkers or writers do not fight for women’s rights, but today even celebrities have come forward to contribute to this wave of feminism. Emma Watson, a famous Hollywood star, also introduced herself and she launched a #HeForShe campaign in which she forces men to be on the women’s side to defend their rights. She is totally opposed to the definition of feminism to be anti-masculine. Instead, she calls on men to come forward and help women achieve equal rights and status. “This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN. We want to try to mobilize as many men and boys as possible to advocate for change. Even Mitchell Obama is also a very strong personality who contributes to this feminism. Her speeches are often very famous about the emancipation of women.
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